Adhered strip of full-headed nails



Oct. 4, 1966 A. LANGAs ETAL ADHERED STRIPA OF' FULL-HEADED NAILS drivingaction.

United States Patent Oftice 3,276,576 Patented Oct. 4, 1966 3,276,576ADHERED STRIP F FULL-HEADED NAILS Arthur Langas and Melvyn J. Howell,Chicago, Ill., asslgnors to Signode Corporation, 'a corporation of Dela-Ware Filed Dec. 14, 1964, Ser. No. 418,114 1 Claim. `(Cl. 20G-56) Thisinvention relates to adhered Strips of nails and, particularly, to astrip of full-headed or common nails for1 use in magazines ofrapid-acting fastener driving too s.

With the advent of fast-acting fastener driving tools, it becamenecessary to have nails available in strip form for use in the magazines.of such tools. Nails assembled in strip form can be convenientlyhandled and the time necessary to load the nail magazines is reduced tothe bare minimum. With nails available in this form, an operator canload the tool magazine in very short order. It is only recently thatfull-headed nails like the so-called common nail have been available instrip form. Such nails are presently being assembled by a variety Iofmethods, each of which has required the providing of substantialquantities of material between the nail shanks, or as a backing for therow of nails. For example, one such method being used consists ofinjecting substantial quantities of plastic into the space between thenail shanks, and other includes the use of a paper backing for the nailsto which the nails are secured by a string, or the like. It can beappreciated that when any of these forms of nail strips are used infastener driving tools, the material used to retain the nails in Stripform would be driven with the nail and would tend to clog the toolduring the Such clogging action would seriously affect the Speed atwhich the t-ool could be operated and thus would tend to seriouslyimpair the efliciency thereof.

Other obvious disadvantages of these methods include the substantialexpense involved in assembling the strip and the cost of the Vmaterialsemployed.

It is, of course, desirable that the nail strip be formed so that thenails are positively held in position, but, on the other hand, the stripmust be sufciently flexible to prevent the strip from fra-sturing in theevent the strip is dropped or otherwise ca-relessly handled. It wouldalso be advantageous if the materials retaining the nail in strip formbe kept at a minimum, so as to prevent clogging of the tool during thedriving action. Another advantage inherent in such an arrangement isthat the area surrounding the work area will b e kept free of suchmaterial.

In the case of a magazine designed to accommodate longitudinal strips ofnails, the nails should be secured in an assembled position withSuicient strength to insure that the roW of nails will remain insubstanti-al alignment to enable the .operator to quickly and easilyload the magazine.

If the strips are to be used in magazines that are `designed to receivenails in a spiral configuration, the strips must be suiiicientlyflexible to permit coiling of the nails without the strip fracturing orthe nails separating from the strip. Such magazines are capable ofholding a larger quantity of nails than one accommodating longitudinalstrips.

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided in oneembodiment thereof a longitudinally extending strip of lcommon nails inwhich the nails are disposed in a stepped or tiered relationship topermit nesting of the nails to facilitate assembling the maximum numberof nails Within the minimum length. During the assembly process, thenails are rst positioned by placing the head of one nail under the headof an adjacent nail and into abutting relationship with the shank of theadjacent nail. The Shanks of the nails are located parallel to eachother. This placing of the nails is continued until a row of the desiredlength is formed. The nails in the strip are adhered together andmaintained in the stepped relationship by a tape coated with an adhesivethat secures the Shanks to the tape. The tape is in tangentialrelationship with the nail Shanks and extends parallel to a lineinterconnecting the nail heads. The tape is located on both sides of thenail row and the adhered strip so formed is Aresilient to permit limitedliexing, but is sufficiently rigid to permit ready insertion into themagazine provided for same. This novel construction obviates thenecessity Iof providing an adhesive or other bonding materials in thespace between the adjacent nail Shanks or the use of paper backing orspacers, as in the case with other nail strips currently on the market.The elimination of such materials is extremely important since it doesaway with the clogging and other problems that occur when they arepresent. In addition, the Strip can be very easily manufactured since itmerely requires the application of a tape and no separate application ofan adhesive is required. The cost of such a strip over those currentlyavailable is substantially reduced since it uses a minimum amount ofadhesive per unit length,

In the case of a nail strip to be used in a magazine designed to receivea spiral strip of nails, or one in a form other than a longitudinallyextending strip as described above, the nail strip is assembled bydisposing the nails in a parallel pattern with their heads in the sameplane and in abutting relationship with the head of an adjacent nail andthe Shanks parallel. The nails are aixed into an adhered array by anadhesive-backed tape, which tape is disposed in tangential contactl Withone side of the row of nails. With only one side of the nails beinginterconnected in the fashion, the strip so formed can be wound ,into aspiral or other non-linear configuration. The flexibility of such astrip is obvious and such tlexibility enables the strip to be formed inwhatever pattern desired. It is seen that with this arrangement, thereis still no material located between the Shanks of adjacent nails otherthan the tape itself and thus this strip contains the same advantagesdiscussed above with respect to the linear adhered strip. That is to saythe likelihood of the tool being jammed during tiring thereof byadhesive or paper is obviated, the cost of Such a strip is minimized,and it can be manufactured without diiculty.

The other advantages and features of this invention will be seen fromthe following description taken in conjunction with the drawings, inwhich:

FIGURE 1 is an adhered strip of nails in which the nails are disposed intiered relationship and are formed into an adhered array by a tape withan adhesive backing extending across the medial portions of the nailShanks;

FIGURE 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the lines 2-2 of FIGURE1;

FIGURE 3 is a view showing a strip of nails in which the heads arecoplanar and the Shanks are interconnected at their midsections by asingle strip of adhesive tape;

FIGURE 4 is a view taken along lines 4-4 of FIG- URE 3; and

FIGURE 5 is a view Showing the nail Strip of FIG- URE 3 wound in aspiral pattern.

Referring first to FIGURES 1 and 2, there is shown an adhered strip ofcommon nails 2 having full heads 4 and cylindrical Shanks 6. The nails 2are angularly disposed with the head 4 of one nail being loca-tedbeneath the head 4 of the nail located on its right and in contact withthe shank portion 6 of the adjacent nail. The space 7 between theoverlapped heads can be varied depending on the configuration the stripis to take. The shanks are spaced apart an amount equal to the width ofthe overlapping head portion as indicated at 8 on the drawings.

A typical strip configuration is one in which the nails form an angle ofabout 30 with the horizontal when they are mounted for firing in themagazine of a fastener driving tool. Vhen located in the magazine, thehead portion of the lowermost nail in the strip not covered by theadjacent nail is exposed to the nail driver, whereby the nail may bedriven into the boards to be joined.

The nails are retained in the relationship shown in FIGURE 1 by tapes 9coated on their underside with a heat-responsive adhesive 10. The tapestrips 9 are mounted on both sides of the Shanks 6 and in tangentialcontact therewith, as indicated at 11. The tape engages the medialportion of the shank 6 and extends in a direction parallel to a linejoining the heads of the nails. One way of assembling the strip is topressure-apply the tape to heated nails.

It can be appreciated that the nail strip so formed will have a limitedamount of resiliency to prevent fracture in the event the strip isdropped, but will maintain the strip in its assembled form so it may bereadily inserted into a magazine designed to receive same in properposition for tiring.

It is to be noted that there is no plastic, or other materials, locatedbetween the shanks.

In the embodiment shown in FIGURES 3-5, the cornmon nails 20 having fullheads 22 and cylindrical Shanks 24 are adhered into strip form by meansof a single tape 26 having on its underside a heat-sensitive adhesive 28which bonds the nails to the tape. The single tape 26 is in tangentialcontact with a medial portion of the shanks 24 and is disposed parallelto the plane in which lthe heads 22 are located. In this embodiment, thenail heads 22 are coplanar and are disposed in abutting relationshipwith an adjacent nail. When using a single tape, the nails may be formedinto the spiral arrangement 30 shown in FIG- URE for insertion into asimilarly designed magazine. In a strip of this type, the entire headarea will be exposed to the driving blade when inserted into a fastenerdriving tool. The adhesive 28 contacts the shanks 24 as indicated at 25and as such positively retains the nail in place relative to the tape26.

It is also seen that here there is no adhesive or other material locatedbetween the shanks of the nails which would tend to bring about jammingwhen the nails are driven. The tape can be easily manufactured andrequires a minimum amount of adhesive.

While two embodiments have been illustrated and described, it will beunderstood `that changes could be made without departing from the spiritor scope of the invention. For example, while the nail heads as shown inFIGURE 1 are illustrated as being in contact with the shank of anadjacent nail, the heads may be spaced slightly apart since the nailsare maintained in their relative positions by the adhering means and donot depend on the contact between the head and adjacent shank. This isequally true with respect to FIGURE 3, wherein the nail heads may notcontact an adjacent nail head. Furthermore, while a particular tape hasbeen referred to, other tapes could be used consistent with the presentinvention.

It is, of course, intended to cover by the appended claim all suchembodiments as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

We claim:

An adhered strip of nails for a rapid-acting driving ltool magazine,comprising a plurality of nails, each of said nails having a full head,a cylindrical shank connected to said full head, and a point formed atthe end of said shank opposite the end connected to said head, saidnails being disposed in stepped, contacting relationship with the headof one nail being located in overlapping relationship with the head ofan adjacent nail, and said shanks being spaced apart from each other todefine an open area between each of the adjacent Shanks, said open areaconsisting only of air in order to minimize clogging problems; means forconnecting said nails to form a strip, said connecting means comprisinga iirst adhesive tape extending across a first portion of the shank ofeach adjacent nail in tangential contact therewith, leaving said openarea void of material other than air, a second adhesive tape extendingacross a second portion of the shank of each adjacent nail in tangentialcontact therewith, leaving said open area void of material other thanair, said first and second adhesive tapes each comprising a frontportion and a backing portion including a head responsive adhesive toprovide a connection between said tape and said nails when said tape ispressure applied to the nails while the nails are in a heated condition,said first and second adhesive tapes each extending across said Shanksin a direction parallel to the line formed by the adjacent nail heads,said iirst and second adhesive tapes each being of a width that is lessthan the length of the nails to which it is connected, and said firstand second adhesive tapes comprising the sole connecting means for saidnails.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,263,218 4/1918Fischer 206-56 2,379,934 7/ 1945 Seiferth.

3,031,670 5/1962 Sillars 20656 3,050,186 8/1962 Niles 206-59 3,056,49310/1962 Berryman et al. 206-632 3,165,868 1/1965 Macdonald et al.

3,167,778 2/1965 Decot et al. 206-56 THERON E. CONDON, Primary Examiner.

LOUIS G. MANCENE, I. M. CASKIE,

Assistant Examiners,

